Sunday at Royal Melbourne will be one of the best days of golf in Australia for many years. It might also be the last for quite some time.
Sunday at Royal Melbourne will be a day to savour as 24 of the best players on the planet go head to head on the final day of the Presidents Cup.
The American team alone, comprises 12 of the top 23 ranked players as listed on the world rankings, while the International team has a number of young guns we’ll be staying up late at night or getting up early to watch contending for major championships for many years to come.
But it will also be a feeling of trepidation for many in the Australian golf community because they will bid a sad farewell to these players late Sunday evening. The circus will be leaving town and it may be a very long time before it returns.
It's the reality for big-time golf in Australia. Our once thriving professional tour has been reduced to just two events – the Australian Open that preceded this week’s extravaganza at Royal Melbourne and the Australian PGA that will follow next week.
Occasionally there will be one-off events in Australia. The World Cup of Golf lobs on our shores every few years. Perth’s proximity might mean the occasional co-sanctioned events with either the Asian or European tours.
But an event that brings so many of the best players in the world at the same time? Not any time soon. All the big money in golf is located elsewhere in the world. The United States tour runs for 11 months a year and for nine of those months pretty much has an exclusive hold on all of the best players in the world.
For the few weeks of the year that it does not, it is various Asian locales, South Africa and increasingly, the Middle East that are attracting the big name players to their tournaments. They can afford the millions of dollars in appearance fees to jazz up their fields, although Rory McIlroy recently knocked back a lazy $2.5 million just to turn up and play in a European tour event in Saudi Arabia.
Australian events can barely afford to scrounge up one tenth of that to attract big name players to its premier events. Most of the big name Australians not named Jason Day need little encouragement to play in the national open. They desperately want their names engraved on the Stonehaven Cup and the roll call of Australian Open winners contains features many of the sport’s all-time greats.
But even next week’s PGA event, coming just one week before Christmas will be missing several big name Australians as they seek some precious down time before the big money events in the United States resume early in the new year.
Royal Melbourne has been so fortunate to have become a regular host of the President’s Cup and this weekend’s event follows on from those held here in 1998 and 2011. It is one of the world’s best courses and Melbourne itself is a great big event city.
But who’s to say the Presidents Cup will come here again in 12 years’ time? There are eight different nations comprising the International Team and they include great golfing nations such as South Africa, Canada and Korea – which have hosted the event in the past - and emerging nations such as China, Mexico and Chile.
You can bet golf officials in those countries are watching the pictures being beamed across the world from Royal Melbourne and working out how they can get in on the action.
When it comes to tennis, Australians are spoiled every year. Our country is the first – and mandatory stop – on the global tour every year.
We love golf with equal fervor and doubtless we will continue to produce players who will sit alongside the very best in the world.
But it will likely be a long time before we again get to see them take on the best of the best on home soil, so those heading to Royal Melbourne on Sunday should relish every moment, irrespective of who wins. They may never see the likes of it on their own doorstep ever again.